


Good thing you're already wearing rainbows

by Rae_Saxon



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Eat My Non Binary Cock, F/M, Time Lords are Pansexual and Non Binary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:33:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26859013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rae_Saxon/pseuds/Rae_Saxon
Summary: The Master gets located in the middle of a pride parade and the Doctor gets worried. So they plan to go and find them. Turns out, he really just wanted to celebrate pride. And the Doctor learns a bit about herself and how she's seen in human terms.
Relationships: The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 108





	Good thing you're already wearing rainbows

“He's in there?” Graham asked doubtfully, eyes on the monitors that showed a parade of colourful, chanting people walking by the TARDIS.

The Doctor looked a little unsure herself.

“That's what my scanner says.”

“We'll never find him in there,” Ryan noted, making Yaz grimace.

“We gotta. We just gotta. I don't even want to think of the chaos the Master could create with that many people around.”

Thinking, the Doctor rubbed her forehead, her eyes still transfixed on the screen.

“I say we dive in then.”

“In there?” Ryan asked, voice a little high pitched. “That's mental.”

“We're gonna have to blend in,” Yaz brought up, smiling slightly and Graham grinned, both ignoring Ryan's shake of his head.

“Oh yeah, I guess we gotta... get some flags for ourselves?” the Doctor asked, unsure of how the whole thing worked.

She got the principle all right, had admired the whole movement from afar more than once. The best of the human race, rising up for themselves and each other, to be who they are and love who they loved, unapologetically. It was beautiful and it had always been just that.

“I don't know,” Yaz remarked with a grin, her eyes wandering down to the Doctor's rainbow shirt and the rainbow lining of her coat. “I think we got you covered already, actually.”

Confused, the Doctor looked down at herself and back to the screen, where countless people with similar rainbow attire were walking past.

“Oh,” she breathed, realising she had accidentally walked around with quite the statement.   
  
She smiled.

For the next few minutes, she watched with a proud little smile as her fam got ready to join their first pride parade – Except, now that she thought about, Yaz seemed quite well informed for someone who had never attended one before.

Knowingly, she had stirred them to a cute little shop outside of town and talked with lowered voice to the boys, in front of a whole shelf wih all sorts of flags. They squirmed a little.

“You don't have a problem with gay people, though, right?” Yaz asked, a light snide in her voice and Graham and Ryan turned to her with indignation in their voices.

“'Course not!” Ryan called and Graham added a little “Who do you take us for?” with a grumble.

“Well then...”

“It's just... we're straight. I dunno if we should sneak in there with flags wrapped around us. It feels wrong, ain't it?”

“I need someone to stick with my TARDIS in any case,” the Doctor offered helpfully. “And the other could try and find the Master's and wait there. Call me as soon as you've found it. He's gotta return to that sooner or later. And then I'll get my answers,” she added with a dark look on her face.

“And we'll go in, trying to stop him from shrinking half the crowd?” Yaz asked.

The Doctor nodded.

With a wide smile, Yaz grabbed one of the flags, seemingly casual. The Doctor thought all the pink and red shades would probably really suit her. Definitely her colours.

Ryan and Graham exchanged a little glance.

“What about you?” Yaz asked, very quickly, her words almost tumbling over themselves. “Any preference?”

Was she nervous? Oh, she was nervous, wasn't she? Because of... oh. Oh.

The Doctor looked at the flags a bit clueless.

“I'm not sure what any of those... thing is... you know, I don't really experience sexuality like you, I think.”

“Well, do you like girls or boys?” Ryan asked, making Yaz roll her eyes.

“Girls or...? Well, I suppose...” the Doctor pondered, finger tapping against her chin. “By human standards, he was a man first, then a woman, sometime later and then a man again. I... does it matter?”

All three of them stared at her.

“I... sorry, are we talking about someone specific here?” Graham finally asked.

The Doctor blushed slightly.

“Weren't we? You asked me who I liked, I thought...”

“Which gender, not a specific person's gender,” Yaz smirked. “Though I definitely have more questions about that later.”

“Oh,” the Doctor bit her lower lip in short consideration. “I don't really... Time Lords, they experience gender differently than humans, really. We can change it on a whim, nothing is really defined by it in our society, so it ended up... rather irrelevant.”

“What no... no gender roles, no stereotypes, preferences... anything?” Yaz asked, stunned and something gleamed in her eyes that could almost be described as envy.

The Doctor shrugged.

“When you grow up in a society where everyone could wake up one night, having regenerated into a woman, you learn that it doesn't really change anything about who they are or who they love. It's just the same with our looks, really. They're just not.. consistent. Of course, if you're like the Master, he's always been a bit vain.” She grinned a little, almost dreamily, not noticing she did it. “Always grows the same stupid beard, too. Well. Except for when she was a woman. Or American.”

The Doctor shuddered.

“So you... don't feel like a woman?” Yaz asked, voice cautious and the Doctor laughed.

“Hell no. I keep forgetting that I am one now. I... get treated differently than before, especially on planets like Earth. But I don't feel different. Just like me, you know? Same old stupid me. Likes swishy coats and stupid beards.”

She quickly sucked in a breath. That last point had most definitely not been something she had meant to say aloud. But apparently, none of her friends had picked up on it – They were exchanging slightly surprised looks.

“Is that... weird?” the Doctor asked and Yaz shook her head quickly.

“You just never told us as much about you as you did now,” Ryan finally broke the silence. “We never knew.”

“I guess it just didn't really... matter?” tbe Doctor asked. “I didn't think it did, at least. I suppose it does on Earth, where there's still so much stereotyping.”

“I don't know,” Yaz replied with a shrug. “I like being a woman. I'm still me, but I like that that's a part of me. Part of what makes me me. And...” She blushed again. “I mean, women are great.”

“Hell yeah, they are,” the Doctor grinned. “And I am honestly excited to be one too. Wanted to mix it up for a while, there. So... am I getting a flag?” she asked, noticing Yaz's slight blush.

“Oh, definitely!” Immediately, her young friend seemed to be right back into her element, pulling out a flag with yellow, white, purple and black stripes. “There you go. I think it fits best.”

The Doctor smiled.

“I love it, thank you!” She did. Purple and Black summed up her sexuality perfectly, now that she thought of it. For reasons she felt she better not disclosed to her friends at the moment.

But then, to her surprise, Yaz pulled out a second flag and handed it to her.

The Doctor looked a little confused.

“Oh, I get two?”

Yaz pointed at the one she had just given to her, a flag with bright pink, yellow and blue stripes.

“This stands for pansexuality. Means that gender isn't a factor in your sexual attraction.”

The Doctor smiled bright.

“You have flags for that? I love that, that's perfect.”

She wrapped it happily around herself, ignoring the fact that they weren't even paid for. Apparently Time Lords didn't have a concept of money, either.

“What's the second one then?” Ryan asked, a little curious.

“Non-binary,” Yaz replied with a shrug. “Means she has an identity that doesn't fit into the male-female binary system. Seemed fitting enough.”

The Doctor smiled brightly as they walked up to the counter, enthusiasm oozing from her in waves. Yaz had to suppress a chuckle as the cashier scanned them in, unable to hold back his own amused smile at the Doctor's childlike happiness.

She was the definition of pride just then, covered in rainbows and other colours, positively surprised at being part of this huge community she had thought no place in, because she... well, she was alien, wasn't she. Yaz shook her head in amusement.

So alien and so much like them, still.

Yaz grasped her own lesbian flag close around her as they walked through the parade, leaving Graham and Ryan behind, who both looked amused and wished them lots of fun. Her hands felt a little sweaty. Truth was, she had never really done this – She had wanted to, but something had always held her back. But right here, in the middle of all these dancing, chanting, loving people, she felt herself lighten a little. The Doctor was by her side the whole time, eyes gleaming and fingers twitching. She seemed excited like a little child, in that way only she could be, that way that always passed over to anyone around her.

But within all the fun, they couldn't forget why they were here – They had to find the Master before the evening ended in dramatics and pain for everyone involved.

“I love human kind, you know?” the Doctor laughed, as she danced around the crowd, excitedly chatting with people who complimented her coat and... well, basically everything about her. She got admired a lot, a group of young women right before them turned around again and again, all with bi and lesbian flags, barely able to keep their eyes off her.

The Doctor barely even noticed. She had stood up on her tip toes, neck raking to look over their heads for the Master.

“I know he's somewhere close... I can sense him... Somewhat.”

“You know, earlier, when you said that the person you liked had changed gender...”

The Doctor let herself fall back down onto her feet, giving her an apologetic smile.

“Oh. That.”

“It's just... have you never... I mean... have you never liked anyone but them?”

The Doctor shrugged.

“Not in the same way, at least. It's special, the connection we have. Pretty unique. Lots of history. Lots and lots of history. Lifelong bonds. Starcrossed lovers. Has everything a good romance novel has, really.”

And a lot, lot more tragedy.

Yaz looked at her with her eyebrows slightly raised, then sighed, before asking,

“So that... connection? Does it involve sensing one another in a large crowd?”

The Doctor flinched, as if physically hit, her shoulders sagging. For a second, she seemed unable to answer, and when Yaz finally got the reply she was waiting for, it wasn't from her.

“You know, I always liked you most. You're smart. Well. For your species, anyway.”

Yaz turned around with a shiver. There he stood, in his purple outfit, a wide grin on his face. The only difference to his usual looks was a little pan flag pinned to his waistcoat and a non-binary flag wrapped around his shoulders like a cape.

The same flags she had picked for the Doctor, she noticed. At least she seemed to have nailed that.

The Doctor's eyes had flung open as she saw the Master, and instinctively, she took a step forwards, before stumbling backwards again, back into a group of teens who were scrambling out of the way, throwing them curious glances.

“Found ya!“ the Doctor finally called, trying to seem like she regained her composure and the Master raised a single eyebrow.

“I believe i was the one who found you, but keep fooling yourself if it makes you happy.“

“We found you! Here! Not sure what it is you're getting out of this, but I'm sure you're planning something de...”

The Master was quietly pointing at his flag, bringing the already stammering Doctor further out of her flow.

A group of people called for someone named “Oliver” behind him, laughing and a lot of hand-holding was involved.

“Do they... do they mean you?” she asked, after a little while of trying to get this wholesomeness together with the Master she knew.

The Master shrugged.

“Yeah. Had to give them some name, when I was in exile here, thanks to you, didn't I?”

Yaz' mouth fell open.

“You.... made... you made friends?”

He turned to her with a displeased grimace.

“No need to sound so surprised. I've made friends before. Haven't I, Doctor?”

“What?” she asked, still staring at the people behind him – One of them had started wrapping their friend into a huge rainbow flag and started spinning them around. “Oh. Yeah.”

Yaz gave her a Look and she quickly remembered that blindly agreeing with the Master was never a good idea. She turned her attention back towards him, still searching for words.

“So you're just here to... uhm... celebrate pride? I'm supposed to believe that, yeah?”

“I've spent a lot of time here, Doctor. And a lot of time in a moment in history where no part of me was accepted. I found myself at these things a lot. And once in a while, I still go. These kids invite me, I...” He seemed genuinely grasping for words for a second, then put on his usual careless facade. “Believe it or not, doesn't make a difference to me,” he finally said with a shrug. “You can tag along, if you want to, you'd probably like them. Observe me or whichever hero term you have for that.”

“What, so you can lead me into a trap? No w...-” the Doctor got quickly interrupted by Yaz, who had stepped onto her foot.

“She'd love to,” she quickly said in her place.

“I would?” the Doctor asked.

“Well, off we go then,” the Master smirked, offering her his arm.

With a confused glance to Yaz, who was giving her very intense signs with her eyes, which, she was sure, meant _something_ , the Doctor took it.

The Master's... - it was still surreal to think that word out loud, but here she was - friends,it turned out, were lovely. They accepted them without any questions, joked around with them, included them in their little group of sunshine and rainbows, with nothing but the occasional eyebrow wiggle towards the Master, who usually silently grinned at them. She was sure, that too, meant _something_ , but she was rather bad at picking up human signals this time around, it seemed.

Whenever she threw Yaz the occasional side-eye for help, she got nothing but an eye-roll. They couldn't really talk freely, she supposed, with the Master not letting go of her arm even once.

Even though, if the Doctor was perfectly honest, she hadn't attempted to let go of _him_ at any moment, either.

“So, a lesbian, huh?” the Master asked Yaz after a little while and the girl blushed, hastily tying her own flag around her shoulders a little tighter, as if it could protect her somehow.

“I am. Got a problem with that?” she snapped, making the Master's smirk widen.

“Not in the slightest. I'm not surprised either.”

He gave a little, knowing side-glance towards the general direction of the Doctor.

 _Again_ , the Doctor thought. Gotta get better with wordless signals.

“Yeah, well,” Yaz muttered. “Pot meet Kettle.”

“Fair enough,” the Master laughed and the Doctor, now completely lost on what they were talking about, turned towards the Master with wide eyes.

“Wait, so you're a lesbian, too?”

The Master frowned. The Doctor frowned back.

Yaz laughed.

“No, silly,” he finally said. “Why the hell would I give a crap about gender? I thought you of all people wouldn't need the explanation?”

“I don't,” the Doctor replied with a sulk. “I just thought... I mean... you were talking about...”

The Master and Yaz exchanged a quick glance and with a sigh, the Master seemed to decide something, because instead of saying another word, he finally unlocked his arm from the Doctor. She stood still for a second, feeling weirdly hurt – Had she said something that wrong? - but then he simply used his free arm to wrap it around her waist and pull her a little closer towards him.

“So, as dates go,” he grinned casually. “I think we should maybe get behind a little and grab something to eat?”

The Doctor frowned.

“Wait, this is a date?”

“Became one as soon as you walked with me,” he nodded with a serious expression on his face, which would've almost worked, if he wasn't so clearly holding back a laugh.

At least she could still read _him_. Always him.

She pointed of some of his friends behind them, who were watching them with manic giggles.

“So, that's why they...”

“Yup,” the Master grinned.

She pointed at some of his other friends who had walked with them earlier and then slowly let themselves fall behind.

“And they...”

“Them too,” the Master agreed with a nod.

“Oh!” the Doctor called and turned towards Yaz. “And why you...”

Yaz nodded with a pained expression.

“Huh,” the Doctor huffed. “Suddenly the world makes sense again. So everyone but me knew this was a date?”

“Yep sweetheart!” one of the Master's friends called from where they walked a few steps before them with Yaz and the Doctor quickly hid her blush in his jacket, suddenly unable to come back up again, when he started to gently run his fingers through her hair.

“So... food?” he asked again, lowering his head to speak directly into her ear, his voice smooth and making her shiver and the Doctor sighed.

“Fine. Food sounds good.”

They found a little, already over-crowded restaurant with rainbow flags hanging outside, that sold them some chips and ate them sitting together on a masonry, with the Master constantly stealing from her mayonnaise and the Doctor surprisingly okay with it.

“You know, I really thought you had an evil plan. Some... some plan, at least. Mass-destruction or something.”

“If I had known you'd show up here, I would've thought of something,” he shrugged. “Didn't mean to give you an existential crisis.”

She bumped into his side gently.

“Don't you dare,” she laughed. “I'm glad to just get to sit with you for once.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he sighed. “Could be worse.”

“Do me a favour?” she asked after a while, her mouth full with chips when she spoke.

He pulled a face.

“Maybe if you ask your with your mouth empty. Urgh.” He staged a shiver.

“I've put Graham and Ryan on duty to guard your TARDIS. Can you... not hurt them?”

The Master snorted.

“And here I thought you'd go home with me, love.”

“Oh, absolutely not,” she laughed, jumping off the barricade they were sat on. “I'm not a first date kind of non-binary.”

The Master raised his eyebrows as he jumped down himself, getting rid of the empty chips cartons in the nearby bin.  
  
“Learned some new words today, did you?”

“I did,” she grinned proudly, making him chuckle, as they walked through the quieter parts of the town back to their ships, his arm, fortunately, back around her waist.

“So,” he asked after a while as Graham and Ryan and their TARDIS' came closer into view. “Are you a kiss on first date kinda non-binary?”

The Doctor beamed.

“You can bet on it.”


End file.
